On parabolic final value problems and well-posedness (Q1704671)

This paper is a brief exposition of the results proven rigorously in the preprint [``Final value problems for parabolic differential equations and their well-posedness'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1707.02136}]. The authors consider two parabolic final value problems and show that for properly chosen data spaces characterized by specific compatibility conditions, these inverse problems are well-posed regarding the existence, uniqueness and stability of their solutions. The first problem considered in the paper is a fully inhomogeneous final value problem \[ \begin{aligned} \partial_t u(t,x) - \Delta u(t,x) & = f(t,x)\quad\text{for}\quad t\in(0,T),\ x\in\Omega,\\ u(t,x) & = g(t,x)\quad\text{for}\quad t\in(0,T),\ x\in\partial\Omega,\\ u(T,x) & = u_T(x)\quad\text{for}\quad x\in\Omega,\\ \end{aligned} \] where \(\Omega\subset\mathbb{R}^n\) is a \(C^\infty\)-smooth bounded open set with boundary \(\partial\Omega\) and \((f,g,u_T)\) are the given data of the problem. The second problem is an abstract final value problem with homogeneous boundary conditions \[ \begin{aligned} \partial_t u + A u &= f\quad \text{in}\quad \mathcal{D}'(0,T;V^*),\\ u(T) &= u_T\quad \text{in}\quad H, \end{aligned} \] where \(A\) is a Lax-Milgram operator defined in a Hilbert space \(H\), \(V \hookrightarrow H \hookrightarrow V^*\) is the corresponding Gelfand triple, \(\mathcal{D}'(0,T;V^*)\) is the space of \(V^*\)-valued vector distributions, and \((f,u_T)\) are the given data of the problem.